A Begining for Us All
by KB1412
Summary: This will be a new beginning for all. Naruto and Sakura grow up, learning how to move on in there lives when many things seem to be against them. Together, they find that being family is most important to each other. Other Char. Included. Not a NaruSaku.
1. Chapter 1

All characters in this fan fic are represented by "Naruto" created by Masashi Kishimoto.

This is my first fanfiction. The setting is Konoha. Team 7 would be around the age 23. This is the first chapter of the series. Enjoy!

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Rain pounded against the cement stone, slowing rolling over in cracked edges. She stood wearily next to it, head down as the chilling air rose around her. 'Its colder today' she thought to herself. She studied the black and gray stone, feeling its sharp edges. She ran her fingers across in rough, sandpapery lettering, engraved deep into the stone. The flowers she had laid before were now dead. The once crisp white edges, now a wilting brown. She covered her face tightly with her hands, shielding her from the rain, yet, her tears began to flood her face.

"Sasuke..I miss you.." she whispered. She wiped her face and knelt down in the soggy wet grass, placing a new flower on the stone.

"I'm sorry i haven't been here in a while," she started. "It seems like everyday gets harder without you.." She paused. 'Life wasn't always this bad, was it?' She closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears flooding her face. "I wish.. I wish i could have done something more.. I wasn't ready for you to go yet.." She choked. She planted her face in her knees, not wanting to raise up. 'if i could just lay here with you, to be close..'

"He wouldn't want to see you like this.. Sakura." A voice from overhead filled the chilled air. Sakura stayed kneeling, not wanting to look into the face behind her.

"Its been two years," he continued. "You have to move on. Visiting like this.. he wouldn't want it." A hand moved quickly to Sakura's shoulder. She could her the squishing sound of the ground beneath her as the stranger knelt down.

"We all miss him dearly, Sakura. Why do you insist on following this alone?"

Sakura raised her head to look up at her stranger. "Because," she began, "I could have done something.. I could have showed him there was more to life.. Naruto. I wasn't strong enough for him."

Naruto smiled. It was weird how he smiled at this moment.. It wasn't a happy nor a sad smile.. It was if he was contemplating his own guilty emotions.

"Sakura, none of us were strong enough for him. When he came home, we all had high hopes.." he trailed for a moment. His eyes drifted over the wet grave stone, covered in a green silky moss. "But the person who came home was not Sasuke. Sasuke died long before he ever came back to Konoha." He looked down at Sakura, who had now moved into his arms. "We must remember our Sasuke, the way we knew him best. As our friend, and brother."

Sakura looked up at Naruto as he said brother. His eyes, crystal blue, filled with so much pain and loneliness. She knew that he felt haunted by Sasuke; his only brother, his first real bond.

"Niichan.." Naruto began to say. It startled Saukra out of her deep thoughts, enough to notice Naruto looking at her. "I made a promise to bring our brother back, but i failed you and the village.."

"You didn't fail us," Sakura interrupted. "You brought Sasuke back, safe, alive and unharmed. He just..." She sighed, remembering Sasuke, sitting in the hospital chair when he was returned to Konoha. "He just couldn't live with the loneliness he had created around him. His death was the only thing that could end his misery. Nothing you or i could have done would have changed that."

"But you still search for it, don't you Sakura? In your memories, you look to see if there was a chance you could have had to stop it. Is that why you come every week? Hoping to receive redemption?" Sakura turned away from Naruto and face Sasuke's headstone.

"Well," she cried. "Your the hokage, so i guess you know all the answers." Sakura reached into her satchel, pulling out a picture of Team 7. She sat it on the headstone next to the freshly laid flower. "It feels so long ago.." she whispered lightly. The days of childhood were so far away- just a dim memory fading each moment.

"You know," Naruto began. "For everything he put us through, the missions, the close call deaths, the torment of thinking we were going to never see him again..and all i can do is love him more." He looked back at Sakura, with a small smile. "He left a hole in both of us, Niichan.."

Sakura rose up next to Naruto, rubbing her hand across his hair. "I know niichan.. I know..".

Naruto stood up next to sakura, towering over her. She looked up into his face, so young, yet so saddened by grief. She knew she wasn't alone, and it was unfair of her to pretend Naruto didn't feel the same way as she.

"Im sorry naruto-kun. Coming here to find me brings back feelings you try so hard to forget. I hate bringing bad things up." The rain began to deminish, leaving drizzled haze in the air. She wiped the rain off Naruto's face and smiled. "Nii-chan, please dont worry about me. I'll be fine.. i just need time."

"Hmph, Well, I'm Hokage. Its my job to worry about you." Naruto gave Saukra is sincere Naruto smile. It was refreshing in a way, she knew that he was happy one again. Naruto looked back at Sauke's grave as he placed his arm around his sister. "Saukra?" He looked up at the sky. "Do you think Sasuke is proud of us?"


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura raked her nails on top of her "new" desk. The legs were loose, the wooden sides were chipped deeply, and marks of previous writers were engraved on the top, enough to read exactly what they were writing at the time. She looked over at Naruto's desk. Golden trim, red mahogany wood, steel legs. He had the best desk in all of konoha, and yet he never seem to occupy it me than 5 minutes a day. 'This is to be my change of scenery huh?' When Tsunade retired and left the Hokage name to Naruto, he wasn't the only one to wreak the benefits. Naruto immediately insisted that Sakura start her own Shinobi Medical academy, as well as fund her research in studying different techniques in medical jutsu. In all honesty, it was something to keep her busy after the retrieval of Sasuke. But it was Sakuras job, and she always felt it was her duty to contribute what was expected of her.

But no where in the job description did it say she had to share an office with Naruto. She took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She grabbed a stack of papers on the corner of her desk and began to get to work.

Sakura sighed. It had been three hours, where was naruto? Sakura stood up from her wobbly hair, brushing the hair out of her face. "Well.." she said aloud. "I cant wait forever." Sakura grabbed her equipment and head out into the village. She walked slowly, noticing the new genin running in the road.

"Team 4 is the best team! All right, were going on a mission, do your best!" The smiling faces, the youth, the innocence. It always brings me back, she thought to herself. A young boy approached Sakura from the team, gleaming from excitement.

"Sakura sensei! Sakura Sensei! Look, look what i got from the practice field!!" Sakura smiled, kneeling down next to the dark haired boy as reached into his kunai pouch. Slowly, she could see small delicate blue and pink flowers grasped in the palm of his hand. With a large naruto like grin to boy said aloud "I picked these because they're pretty like you!"

"Oh Takai, if only you spent more time practicing than picking flowers for me." Takai looked down in disappointment, and began to walk away with his head hung low. "But you know," she began, "Flowers are the best way to a womans heart."

Takai bolted back to Sakura with big smile on his face. "So you like them!"

"Of course she not, she just has to like them because of you Takai." A taller, leaner girl appeared next to Takai. Her purple hair spiked up and across her face, almost if she was trying to conceal her identity.

The girl snorted as she puched Takai down onto the ground. "Picking weeds is stupid. Why do you have to be on my team? Your such a child."

'What a hell of a child...' Sakura thought. She looked down at Takai who was hiding his face in his knees. "Takai..."

"Im not a Child! Im gonna be the BEST ninja ever! And then Ruri will have to accept me!" Sakura was a bit taken a back. It seemed like forever since she had heard those same famous words from Naruto when she was just a gennin. She placed her hands on Takai's shoulders and picked him up.

"Takai, I Believe in you. If that is your dream, then you can make it come true." She placed the small flowers in her hair bun as she brushed away a tear on Takai's face. "Trust me. I know someone just like you. And, i think youll grow up to be a very strong man, just like him one day."

"Really?" sniffled Takai.

"Yep, but if you dont go to your medial class, how will you ever get there?" Sakura gave me a quick grin. "Now hurry before i really have to show you my strength!"

Takai grabbed his bag and ran away. Sakura stood up and laughed.

"We were like that too you know," said a feminine voice.

"'Sha, but i was never as bad as you, Ino-pig..." Sakura turned to see Ino. Tall, beautiful as ever, her blue eyes reflecting sakuras flowers. "Thank you for being nice to Takai. He treats you more of a aunt than me.."

Sakura turned into the direction of Takai, still lagging in speed. "Well, i must admit, its nice to find someone with Naruto's youthfulness."

Ino grabbed onto sakura's arm, pulling in tight. "Ow, Damn!" Sakura cried

"Whoops, sorry, hah, i dont know my own strength...Lets go eat at Shinomi's shop today for lunch. Please, please, please!"

"Ino, you know me all too well... By the way, have you been working out or something? Seriously..."

They began to walk down the road, passing vendors and villagers. "Well, i got to keep up with my rival you know. I hear she's strong..."

"Oh Ino, you dont have to.."

"...like a man. A Big burley ugly man."

Sakura glared at Ino. She raised her finger close to Inos forehead. "You know i can send you flying 20 feet with one flick. Dont make me go there..."

A Short pause of seriousness, the both of the women laughed. "Your ridiculous.." laughed Ino.

The color white consumed sakura's desk. She began to slowly walk towards it, as if a typhoon had swept over her desk. " What... is this?" Mountains of paperwork overflowed even into her chair. Sakura inhaled deeply, clenching her fist. "Im gonna stab him..."

"Ah Sakura! My favorite niichan..." Naruto chuckled as he walked into the office. "Nice desk... have you been slacking? You know, i can have you fired..."

"Naruto, this is your damn paperwork. You haven't been in all morning and now they have shoved it off to me!" Naruto stared blankly at sakura. He then turned to the window and gazed out at the village. "What can i say. Im a people person. I should be out with the villagers, talking to them and spending time with them. I want them to know there Hokage cares." He turned around swiftly and slyly smiled as he whispered "Besides... paperwork isnt really my thing.."

"Naruto! Ill hit you! Come here Now!" but it was too late. In a poof of smoke, he was gone. Naruto was getting good at disappearing like that lately.

"I could just... Kill him, yeah! Thats what ill do ill kill him, and then ill bring him back to life, then ill kick him..." Sakura moved the loose crumpled pages from her chair and threw them on the old rickety desk. She laid in the back of her chair for a moment, glaring at the bookshelf on the other side of the room. She stood up quick, looking out into the hallway to see if anyone was near. She close d the door and stood next to the old wooden case, running her fingers across the spines of the worn books. "Jutsu...Kiza cooking...Land of Rock...Medical Ninja Handbook." She pulled the old tattered book from the case, revealing a bottle of sake behind it. She placed the book back and tip toed back to her desk.

She slowly poured the sake into her small glass and smiled. "My own little stash.. Naruto would never look up medical jutsu..." She placed the cup to her lips; she could feel the heat rising from the cup as it burned her tongue. With one swig Sakura began to...

"Hey, you know your not supposed to drink on the job right? Thats something you probably picked up from me."

Sake dripped down sakura's mouth. She couldn't even take a drink of her hidden booze before a hand was on her bottle.

"Thanks kid, I've been needing a drink."

In one moment the bottle which had been filled was now sprawled across the desk, emptied in a mere moment by the big breasted granny tsnade.

"I see naruto isnt doing is usually duites eh, Sakura?" Sakura groaned. She absolutely hated these visits from Tsunade at the office. She may not be hokage anymore, but she never really stopped treating everyone like she was. Her visits were always filled with personal questions and bickering about gambling. "Tsunadesama," Sakura began,"As you can see I'm pretty.. well, busy for the next 2 weeks. So, if you want to stop by then, i would love to chat."

Tsunade leaned onto sakura's desk, placed herself on top of the paperwork. "Well, since naruto's too busy with the village, i need someone to hang out with later tonight at the pliko house." Tsnade looked up form the desk to meet sakuras eyes. "And we all know," she began as she pointed her finger at sakuras head "that you have been avoiding your old sensei. So dont you think we should spend some quality time together?"

'Why do i feel like i have no choice...' sakura thought.


End file.
